Tax advice with regards to travel log books, help please

[Night Shift]

Hi guys

I am a 26 year old IT technician and have a small issue with regards to tax and was hoping I could get your opinion or advice on my current situation.

I'm doing catch up with tax which I didn't know I was suppose to do, lol, because the company I worked for after matric did all our tax stuff and I assumed every company thereafter did this on behalf of us.

My situation at the moment is that I finally obtained all my IRP5's but because I used my own vehicle in 2 companies I had to submit my km's traveled, and no-one ever told me to keep my own logs. I managed to get all my km's traveled from the one company but the other has been ignoring my requests for a week and a half now, because the last email I got they said their system is currently offline. I contacted SARS hoping there is a way around it, but they told me I had to have those logs because I will have to submit them.

The problem is all our data entries like km's traveled, where, and why we drove out to sites, were all submitted via a tablet and we were never given a written log book.

Do you perhaps know what I should or could do next, because I am at a loss and feel disappointed that no-one ever told me this or explained these things to me ?

Because they eventually emailed me this morning saying they could only find logs for January and February of 2014 ( I worked for them for 6 months before leaving because of support and admin issues). I am so tempted in writing my own travel logs, but too scared I appear before a SARS committee and next thing you know it I am standing next to Pravin Ghordan trying to defend myself, lol.

Please help.

 

[cyberbob1979]

Pfff - if you remember your start and end KM's and some of the clients you visited then you are fine.

Take Google Maps - figure out the distance from your offices to clients and then fill out the log book to the best of your ability.

Aim for a realistic "business travel" KM total (60 - 70% if you have no idea) and submit that.

To be honest, a lot of people just fudge it (if they don't have real records or logs... you won't get into trouble unless you log like 45000 km's as business in one year

 

[The_Mowgs]

Pfff - if you remember your start and end KM's and some of the clients you visited then you are fine.

Take Google Maps - figure out the distance from your offices to clients and then fill out the log book to the best of your ability.

Aim for a realistic "business travel" KM total (60 - 70% if you have no idea) and submit that.

To be honest, a lot of people just fudge it (if they don't have real records or logs... you won't get into trouble unless you log like 45000 km's as business in one year

So you want him to commit fraud?

 

[flippakitten]

Hi guys

I am a 26 year old IT technician and have a small issue with regards to tax and was hoping I could get your opinion or advice on my current situation.

I'm doing catch up with tax which I didn't know I was suppose to do, lol, because the company I worked for after matric did all our tax stuff and I assumed every company thereafter did this on behalf of us.

My situation at the moment is that I finally obtained all my IRP5's but because I used my own vehicle in 2 companies I had to submit my km's traveled, and no-one ever told me to keep my own logs. I managed to get all my km's traveled from the one company but the other has been ignoring my requests for a week and a half now, because the last email I got they said their system is currently offline. I contacted SARS hoping there is a way around it, but they told me I had to have those logs because I will have to submit them.

The problem is all our data entries like km's traveled, where, and why we drove out to sites, were all submitted via a tablet and we were never given a written log book.

Do you perhaps know what I should or could do next, because I am at a loss and feel disappointed that no-one ever told me this or explained these things to me ?

Because they eventually emailed me this morning saying they could only find logs for January and February of 2014 ( I worked for them for 6 months before leaving because of support and admin issues). I am so tempted in writing my own travel logs, but too scared I appear before a SARS committee and next thing you know it I am standing next to Pravin Ghordan trying to defend myself, lol.

Please help.

I would say submit what you can prove.
Then you have 0 worry if they call you up for supporting documents.

Sure the rebate will be less but at least you can sleep at night for the next 5 years.
SARS requested supporting documents for a R12,000 claim and it sounds like yours will be more.

If you look at it like this:
Tax fraud... 25 years in Jail
Murder... 6 years
Rape... 6 months

OK, those are edge cases but the tax man is looking to catch people and extort as much money as possible from you, so rather don't give them a reason.

Your best bet is to get yourself an app(the paid one works the best), set your home, office and work hours.
Log book done next year with very minimal effort!

 

[Night Shift]

Shot guys, much appreciated

I will submit what I can, I see the company only managed to give me my logs for 2014's IRP5, they can't retrieve anything for 2015. So I am going to submit it as is.

Luckily I am currently working as onsite support, so no traveling for me, but for next time I know.

Thanks for input.

 

[flippakitten]

Shot guys, much appreciated

I will submit what I can, I see the company only managed to give me my logs for 2014's IRP5, they can't retrieve anything for 2015. So I am going to submit it as is.

Luckily I am currently working as onsite support, so no traveling for me, but for next time I know.

Thanks for input.

That seems a little bit odd for 2015... I mean how are they going to submit it to SARS for VAT etc...

 

[Night Shift]

Just an update, I submitted everything and on the 2015 submissions I just said I don't want to submit tax for work log.

Confirmed with SARS everything is up-to-date and they paid me what they owed, lol

Now I know for a next time what to do and will inform others and educate my siblings.

 

[The Voice]

I used to hate submitting because of logbooks. I used to have a logbook in my car and kept it up to date as best I could - had it down pat after 3 years. Of course, I always DID submit them, because stingy SARS wouldn't let me claim for anything else. And I got audited every year anyway.